


Once Dead Twice Alive

by ViridianK



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Boats, Chris Redfield - Freeform, Confusion, Fear, Former Umbrella Employee(s), M/M, Nivanfield, Original Characters - Freeform, Piers Nivans - Freeform, Piers is "dead", Piers is a ghost, Sadness, Slight horror, Split body, Strange Voices, TerraSave, Underwater Wreckage, Visions, planes, still bad at tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-03-31 03:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3963400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViridianK/pseuds/ViridianK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piers and Chris struggle on through the underwater facility, only for Piers to send his captain off as we all know he did. But, when the pod leaves and Piers sees another one while hearing HAOS in the remains of the facility, he struggles with a massive headache that makes him black out. Before completely blacking out Piers feels himself being dragged into the pod before everything slipped away, who saved him, or was he really saved at all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Illusions

Chapter 1: Illusions

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” – Marcus aurelius

 

_*Warning. Warning. Depressurization imminent. All personnel are advised to evacuate via safe pods immediately. Warning. Warning…*_

            They continued to struggle on through the facility collapsing the pieces all around them. Water was beginning to flood into the facility on all sides, the building rocking and explosions coming from deeper within at a massive B.O.W. tried to fight its way back to the ones who would dare to try and stop it. The two slowly trudged on, black combat boots sloshing in the increasing levels of water as electricity arced over their heads. One man tried to keep the other up as much as he could, but the other was slowly fading away and falling to the ground in ever decreasing intervals.

The older man cursed, coming to a green wall of a hardened flesh like matter. _“Fuck! Of all the times to run into shit like this! Don’t worry Piers I’ll find us a way out of her!”_

The younger man stumbled to the ground, using the bits of energy he could muster to keep moving forward, keep getting his friend and Captain to safety. _“Chris… I c-can… destroy it…”_

The older man looked to his younger partner in horror. _“No! Don’t let that virus control you, you can’t just use it like it wants!”_

            The younger man ignored the advice of his Captain, charging up electricity to burn away the wall stopping them from escaping this hell hole under the ocean. The older man looked distraught over his partner’s use of bio-electricity but pushed his worries aside, picking him up once again and dragging him along.

            Water continued to flood down into the facility, causing more explosions and electrical fires spouting up from the direction they had just come from. The older of the two soldiers saw the sign ahead reading *Escape Pods* and found a new burst of energy to keep struggling forward. Reaching the entrance to the first pod the younger man’s Captain set him on the ground to configure the controls so it would launch. The younger of the two sat there, looking around for things he could no longer see, and wondering what to do, for his hearing had long since faded away.

            Looking to his patch, the younger soldier grasped it in his hand, pulling it free and staining it with a smear of blood, using the ever dwindling strength he possessed as the virus kept sapping it from his body and soul. His Captain finished with the controls, moving back over to pick up his infected comrade. They struggled to the entrance of the pod, and the younger soldier used up almost the remaining reserve of his sapped strength, pushing the older of the two into the pod, releasing his bloodstained badge as he did so.

            He gave a smile as best as he could, his body being overcome by the infection coursing through it, coupled with his dwindling eyesight and the deafness, he could no longer be sure if he was smiling in the right direction. He moved as quickly as he could, shutting the door to the escape pod as his trusted Captain stood motionless and confused, and then began banging on the door to the pod, screaming for someone who could no longer hear him to open it up and follow him home. The younger soldier took one more look in the direction he thought the pod was in, smiled, and pulled the lever, sending the vessel off into the water.

            He stood there for a moment, watching as his Captain continued to scream and plead as he was swept away into the depths of the sea. He looked to his left for no other reason other than the sudden urge to do so, and heard a voice deep in his head that he had never heard before.

_*Follow the pod… soon you can rest…*_

            He slowly staggered to his left, or what he assumed was his left, and felt the cold metal presence of a second escape pod. Then he heard the sounds, HAOS was once again thrashing through the water, going after the sole escape pod flying through the ocean waves. A sudden wave of pain coursed through the soldier’s head, causing him to drop to his hands and knees, screaming from a pain he had never felt before.

_*Sleep little one… it is not yet your time… nor is it that man’s time…*_

            The soldier blacked out after a few moments, but felt odd sensations in the environment around him as he drifted away from the pain. A second form seemed to take shape nearby, and he felt himself drifting into the escape pod. Before the pod closed he also felt the buildup of massive amounts of electricity, something even he couldn’t dare to rival, especially in his weakened state. Nothing else seemed tangible, or real, as he drifted off into something akin to sleep, but yet not worthy of being called sleep that he so richly desired.

**oOoOoOoOo**

_*It’s not your time little one… you must wake up…*_

            Piers woke up, groaning on a long beach of white sand in the middle of a bright afternoon, the sun was high in the sky. He slowly opened his eyes, slightly recoiling at the bright light before him, and tried to look around. It didn’t seem like anyone was around, which was good because he could hardly move without a surge of pain going through his head.

_*Sleep… we will arrive…*_

            Piers decided to listen to the voice inside of his head, and closed his eyes one more time, drifting off into something that still was not yet akin to sleep. He saw images flash through his mind as he slept, voices he could remember but not place a name to, places and things he _knew_ he had seen but still could not remember when or why he was there. Countless fights flew past his vision, countless times spent saving the one man he had always looked up to, but _still_ he could not remember a name to go with the face. Piers started to become frantic, thrashing about in his nightmare, trying to remember things that were all but done and gone.

_*Wake up little one… we are closer…*_

            Piers opened his eyes, and this time did not recoil from the light. Instead, he was shocked. He was in a completely different place, not a sight of water or beach sand anywhere within his line of sight. He was surrounded by buildings and people on all sides and it was black as night outside. He stumbled through the crowds, trying not to crash into anyone, but nobody seemed to even notice that he was there. He staggered for about thirty feet before he felt so worn out he had to lean on a wall to catch his breath. Then _it_ happened to him. Someone had just walked _through_ him, like he wasn’t even real. Piers’ eyes followed the person as they continued walking as if nothing had ever happened.

_*What the hell…*_

_*Shh… little one… sleep now… all will be answered soon…*_

            Piers tried to keep his eyes open but they eventually closed of their own accord. The only things left to accompany him into a failed rest were the lights and sounds of a bustling city he could no longer recognize. More people began to walk through him, and at some point he thought he had recognized someone as his vision started to blacken but couldn’t put a name to _this_ face.

_*We are closer now… only a little more time…*_

            Piers opened his eyes once again, this time somehow feeling more energetic than before. Piers studied his surroundings and was confused by the sight he saw. It was an office, that much was sure, but he felt like he should _know_ this office, like he had been there before but this was just another one of dozens of things Piers could no longer pin down in his memory. It was like his memory had all but evaporated before the first time he had woken up on that beach.

            There was a computer in the room, on top of a mahogany desk, and behind it sat a black office chair. The desk was piled high with reports and paperwork, but one lone object caught Piers’ eye. The one thing he had found that he was able to put a name to. His badge, sitting on top of the mound of paperwork, it still had the smear of blood from when he had given it to someone he could no longer remember. Piers walked over and tried to pick it up. His hand shot straight through it and Piers yanked his arm back out of fear.

            He stared at the badge for as long as he dared, not quite understanding what had just happened. Piers started hearing two voices coming towards the office, and he _still_ recognized them but could not for the life of himself, put a name to those damned voices. Piers frantically looked around for somewhere to hide but there was nowhere that would keep him out of view, even the space below the desk was an open window to see who would be there. Piers did the only thing he could do; he stood still, and just hoped that whoever came through the door wouldn’t beat the living crap out of him.

_“Jill for the last damn ti-“_

_“Chris! Come on already, you can’t spend the rest of your days trying to find someone!”_

_*I know those voices… am I reliving my past…?*_

_*No little one… this is not a memory…*_

            Piers stood there as two people stormed through the door. The first was an older man, jaw set, brown hair, blue eyes, and an annoyed look played across his face. He was followed by a slightly shorter brown haired woman who seemed to be trying to convince him of something. The older man stormed around the desk and sat down in his chair with an audible _thud_ , neither of them seemed to notice the man standing in the middle of the room. Piers eyed the both of them, trying to click his memories into place.

_“Chris, you can’t just sit here and never approve of someone to join your team.”_

Chris scowled at her. _“Jill who I want on my team is my own damn business.”_

Jill grunted, annoyed. _“ **Chris**. I know you’re still remembering but you need to let it go. You can’t hold onto something this long, you need to take some time to relax and think about all of this.”_

Chris eyed Jill for a second. _“Jill, I would think **you** would understand why I don’t let go.”_

Jill looked visibly shocked for a second but regained her composure just as fast. _“Chris… while I **am** grateful for that… you know as well as I do that he isn’t coming back from this, what do I have to do to convince you of that?”_

Chris sighed, rubbing both of his hands on his face. _“How about some kind of closure… to actually see the kid’s body, we buried an empty casket and you are trying to tell me to just **forget** all of it? Jill I won’t ever forget that kid, he’s the reason my worthless ass is still alive and sitting right here.”_

Piers watched on in stunned amazement. _“Chris… fine. If that is what it takes I will get some people and we will scour that whole damn ocean if it means you’ll come back.”_

Chris nodded at Jill. _“I will find someone when you find me his body, and not a moment sooner.”_

Piers kept watching, amazed at the resolve of his Captain to not forget the past, leaning back towards the desk he didn’t realize what was sitting right behind his hand.

_*Finger Print scan initiated. Please stand by for results.*_

            Jill and Chris looked at each other utterly confused. Jill moved closer to the scanner and Chris eyed it in fear. They both watched as it kept going through files and faces of people even though **nobody** had touched the scanner, at least nobody that they could see. Jill slowly slid her hand under the scanner and picked it up, setting it back down immediately after she felt some sort of electronic backlash from it.

_*Scan complete. Finger Print matches that of former Alpha Team member Piers Nivans.*_

            Chris’ brow furrowed in confusion and Jill stared at it in horror. Chris looked at the screen of his computer. Sure enough, Piers’ file and photo were displayed on the screen as if he had actually pushed his finger onto the scanner. Piers took a step back, almost stepping through Jill in the process as he watched the scene unfold before him with horrified eyes.

_“C-Chris… what the hell just happened…”_

_I-I don’t… I don’t know… he isn’t in here right?”_

_“Chris he’s… dead… how could he be in here?”_

_“How would I know that Jill?! But you **saw** the damn scanner; it started a finger print scan all on its own!”_

Jill chewed her bottom lip. _“Maybe it’s just defective; I’ll find you a new one.”_

            Chris sighed and covered his face with his hands. He sat at his desk like this for a moment before he finally brought them back down to look at Jill. Piers couldn’t help but want to try and comfort the older man somehow, just tell him that he really **was** there. Piers stepped forward, remembering all the occasions that he had people walking through him. He moved to put a hand on Chris’ shoulder, and almost had a heart attack when it actually **_touched_** Chris.

            Confusion filled the room. Piers was left staring at his hand actually on Chris’ shoulder, he could **feel** it, he could actually **feel** a person, after all the times he walked through someone and they walked through him. Chris’ head whipped to the left, searching for something that he could feel but couldn’t see. Jill moved forward to try and talk to Chris.

_“C-Chris, what’s wrong?”_

Chris turned away from his shoulder, trying to ignore the presence he could still feel there. _“I… I think I should actually take some time off from this…”_

Piers’ eyes widened in horror, and somehow, he found the will to speak. **_“Captain! I’m still here!”_**

            Jill and Chris both looked around wildly. They both knew that voice and had heard it, but neither of them could see the man standing right in front of them. Chris buried his head in his hands, as Jill still looked around the room for some tangible evidence that they weren’t alone.

_“Jill… yeah I think I’ll take some time off…”_

Jill turned back to Chris. _“Chris you aren’t the only one… I heard something too…”_

Chris sighed again. _“I’ll still take some time off to… figure everything out Jill.”_

            Jill raised her hands in defeat. She was still looking around the room for the source of the voice but finally decided to give it up, figuring that she would never see anything. She allowed Chris to sign off of everything and get up to walk out the door. Once he got to the door he stopped and looked at Jill. Jill gave him a reassuring hug as Piers stood by, still horrified that he could somehow communicate with them.

_“Be careful Chris… and we **will** find you his body, I’m sorry.”_

Chris grunted. _“Yeah… thanks Jill… and I hope you do. Nobody deserves to have an empty casket buried.”_

            With that the conversation was over and Chris left out the door. Jill stood back for a moment, watching him leave as Piers took the initiative to follow his Captain out. He passed through Jill who gasped and seemed to grow colder as he turned around and looked at her. Piers ignored it for now, following his former Captain to wherever it was he was going.


	2. Following the Lead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jill stood inside the office as Chris walked out, and then she felt a chill course through her as she started seeing images of something Chris has never hinted at or described to anyone. Can she trust the things she saw, or is she being led on a wild goose chase in search of a non-existent body?
> 
> Jill is joined by five new characters:  
> 1) Sheva Alomar - Partners up with Jill for the Search.  
> 2) Claire Redfield - Brings along another member of TerraSave to help with the search.  
> 3) Agent Jackson- Agent Jackson is an expert diver that Jill asked to come along on the search.  
> 4) Agent Baird- Formerly from Umbrella, Agent Baird is extremely current on Umbrella's facilities, including the underwater facility he helped create the building plans for some time ago.  
> 5) Den Underwood - Member of TerraSave that Claire knew was stationed in China and had been seeing reports come in on the wreckage in the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys hope you enjoy this one! Hope I can still keep this slight horror element going! (For now hehe ;} )

Chapter 2: Following the lead

“Part of growing up is realizing you learn to love so many people. It's about forming those relationships and finding what will last forever.” ~ Dylan O’brien

 

 

            Jill watched as Chris started to walk out of the room after their strange ordeal. She was still looking around, obviously somewhat frightened of the strange occurrences. Barely a moment after Chris walked out of the room completely Jill felt something course through her, a deep chill that made goosebumps rise and scared her to the bone. She froze in place, not understanding what it was before images start flashing through her mind.

**oOoOoOoOo**

_“Piers, I n-need some h-help here this thing is c-c-crushing…”_

            Jill saw Chris being held in a strong grip by a giant B.O.W., one that she presumed to be the HAOS monster that was destroyed. She tried to move and couldn’t, feeling that strange chill around her feet making her immovable as she tried to do something. Against her will, her vision was redirected over to another scene that was even more frightening than seeing Chris being crushed to death.

            Jill almost gasped when she saw Piers in a corner of the room. His arm was impaled on some kind of metal debris, and it looked like he couldn’t move it. She turned back and saw Chris again, the creature squeezing even tighter. She looked back to Piers and saw the distressed look in his face, filled with something she never thought she would see from someone in the service. **_Love_**. Piers started struggling away from the debris, hardly making any progress. Jill stared on in horror, unmoving, as Piers started ripping his arm apart to get to something that was on the ground.

            Piers screamed, bone and muscle breaking and shredding through the piece of metal in his arm, falling to the ground in front of him while blood started streaming out of his arm. Jill almost doubled over and vomited, but she again felt the chill and couldn’t move. Piers started crawling forward, grabbing a syringe. He slammed it into his arm and injected himself. Jill watched as he starting changing.

**_*Holy shit… Chris never mentioned any of this…*_ **

            Jill saw the arm that Piers had injected turned into some hideously mutated appendage, and it was sparking with electricity. The next several scenes seemed to flash by, Piers saving Chris, and their subsequent journey to the escape pod. Then everything slowed down again, letting Jill see it with crystal clear clarity, as if she was actually there herself.

_Chris set Piers down next to a door. **“C’mon Piers, we can still make it out of here!”**_

_Piers had no answer, but he was clutching something on his arm. Chris finished with the door and it opened, and then he moved over to grab Piers. He helped him up to the door, but then Chris was pushed into the pod and left staring dumbfounded at a badge within his grasp. The door was quickly shut, and a moment passed before Chris finally reacted, banging on the door, begging Piers to come with him._

**_*Oh my god… what the hell really happened down here…*_ **

            Then Jill saw it again, that same thing buried deep inside of Piers that was somehow clearer to her than the look on Chris’ face through the door of the pod. **_Love_**. Jill watched as Piers sent the pod off, and looked behind him somewhat distressed, but then she heard it. _Something_ was causing the building to quake like nothing Jill had ever felt before, and she could hear things exploding deeper within the facility.

_Piers looked over to another pod that suddenly seemed much more obvious than it had a few moments ago. He looked back toward the way they had come from, and then out into the water where Chris was now at. He clutched his head in pain, falling to his hands and knees. Something else appeared and dragged him into the pod, and then moved to stand back where Piers had originally been, and looked back out into the depths of the ocean._

            Only another moment lasted before everything seemed to fly by in pieces. The new person standing before Jill looked just like Piers, but she had just seen him dragged into the pod. She heard HAOS bust out of the facility and saw him closing in on Chris’ escape pod. Jill’s breath would have been caught in here throat if she could, it grabbed Chris’ pod and began to crush it. This time was different than earlier however, this time, HAOS was blown into bits as Chris’ pod flew away. Then the new person turned around.

Jill caught her breath, actually _caught_ her breath, and this time, the chill was a little less cold. **_*Piers…*_**

It lifted an arm and pointed to the remaining pod. **_“The pod is still under water. Find it, and soon you might find him as well.”_** Jill tore her vision away from the pod to see a completely normal Piers, save for one thing, he seemed to shift between looking normal, and looking infected.

            The next thing Jill did was stumble back, her sight returning her to standing near the door to Chris’ office. She looked around one more time; nothing seemed amiss within the office and the chill from earlier was no longer present. Jill took one last look at the computer, Piers’ identification still viewable on the screen.

**_*Don’t worry Piers… you’ll get a heroes’ burial.*_ **

            Jill turned and walked out of the office, heading to her own. When she walked in she turned on her computer and started looking up as much information as she could about China and the underwater facility that exploded after Chris had escaped. There was no mention of an escape pod other than the one that Chris had been found in, and Chris had made no indication that he somehow knew of a second one. Jill grabbed her phone and went through other contacts she had from the B.S.A.A. She put in a few calls and eventually had a small reclamation team put together to go down and investigate the wreckage, and hopefully find what she would be looking for. After that Jill sighed, still holding her phone, wondering if she should call Chris to try and grill him for some more information. She decided against it however, and tried to get some sleep before morning.

oOoOoOoOo

 

_“Jill? Jill? Jill, wake up.”_

            Jill groaned, pulling her head up off of her desk. She looked up in front of herself but recoiled and shielded her eyes as soon as she opened them to protect them from the harsh light. It took her a moment to get oriented to the new light and once she did she looked around to see a few people standing in the room around her. She groaned again and put a hand on her head.

_“Yeah, you guys need something?”_

One soldier looked at her from the back of the room and smiled slightly. _“Long night, Agent Valentine?”_

Jill shook her head. _“You don’t even know the half of it Martinez, everyone ready to go?”_

Jill got a nod of acknowledgement from everyone in the room. _“Alright then, let’s get going it’s going to be a long ride.”_

oOoOoOoOo

            Jill had requested transport over to China for her small squad of B.S.A.A. troops which was easily granted. After waiting for about an hour the plane finally touched down to pick them up. Jill stepped on first, giving Agent Martinez directions to take them to China and then wait up to a week to see if they needed to be taken back to the North American base, and if it took them any longer than that, to head back if he was needed elsewhere.

            After giving Agent Martinez directions Jill took a seat towards the back of the aircraft, sitting down and mulling over her thoughts on the strange happenings of the night before, and the possible implications it could mean for what she was about to do. Was she really going to find Piers, and if she was, would those visions somehow actually lead her to where he was?

            Then the thoughts of what Chris had told her, versus what she saw, starting biting each other. Chris never told anyone Piers had infected himself, so then how was she seeing that? Chris had said that Piers killed HAOS and been lost himself, not pushing Chris into the pod while being overcome by the infection and seeming to barely register anything that was happening to himself. Jill was jostled from her thoughts when one of the other agents came back to speak to her.

_“Agent Valentine, what exactly are we going to be looking for down there?”_

Jill smiled and waved slightly. _“Honestly Sheva, I don’t have a complete idea of what we are looking for just, well just Piers basically.”_

Sheva nodded. _“So do you think this will really get Chris back into action?”_

Jill shrugged. _“I hope so, I asked Claire to come along and she agreed readily, she also said that it was probably the best thing we could do for Chris.”_

Sheva smiled. _“I guess his sister would definitely know that better than any of us would so if she says it will work then it has to.”_

Jill nodded and started to stand up. _“Yeah, I really think it will… I mean if we could find him the body of the last soldier to save his life… I mean that **has** to pull him out right? Anyway, let’s go get the others together so we can decide who is going where we have a huge area to search.”_

            Sheva nodded her agreement and they both walked up towards the other four members of their party. Claire had agreed to come along, bringing another member of TerraSave and two other B.S.A.A. operatives that Jill had called up. Everyone turned and looked at Jill with sparks of determination in their eyes.

_“How long until we get there Jill?”_

            Jill looked slightly to her right, about five feet away sat one of the other B.S.A.A. members that came along for the ride, Agent Jackson was an expert diver, and she had recommended bringing along Agent Baird because he was an expert in Umbrella’s building designs. Claire had brought along someone named Den Underwood, who had been keeping tabs on what wreckage floated up from the facility, and where it floated up.

_“About an hour until we land in China Agent Jackson. I thought we would go over our search plan before we landed._

_“Sounds good and all,”_ Den said from his seat next to Claire. _“But I think your best bet would be to just search the main wreckage of the facility seeing as how most of the building collapse in on itself.”_

Baird spoke up to counter Den’s statement. _“True, but if the reports are correct they were in a portion of the facility that had other structural damage before it actually blew. There are pieces of wreckage as far as a mile or two away from the facility, and it is a **lot** of water to search through if we really want to find the body.”_

Clair looked at Jill while she was scratching the side of her head slightly. _“Jill, if we are just looking for a body, wouldn’t it most likely be on the surface of the water seeing as how most people would just be floating?”_

Jill shrugged. _“I don’t know Claire, but my intel says that the facility was huge, and nobody has reported in seeing any large portions of it float to surface, least of all a body. We’ve had a few teams out here since the incident searching anything that floated up, so I am almost certain that we are going to find Piers’ body under water.”_

Claire nodded. _“I guess that makes sense. So, what are our searching assignments then, Jill?”_

Jill looked around the room. _“Den and Agent Baird, you two will pair up to go search the main wreckage of the facility since you are the experts on this building as far as the six of us are concerned. Claire, you and Agent Jackson start searching North-west, North-East, and North of the facility. Sheva and I will start searching to the south of it. If anyone finds anything reach the other teams over the comms and we will all converge together and see what we get, agreed?”_

Everyone nodded their agreement. _“All right then, suit up everyone, we have some wreckage to go search.”_


	3. Searching the Wreckage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jill's diving team is brought together as they head out to China to start searching for Piers' body. A couple things they hadn't been expecting were found, but one thing that they were looking for was found. But nobody expected what they were looking for to turn out the way it did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you get to the musical part of the chapter, I really recommend playing it and listening along to it.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk7-GRWq7wA
> 
> Absolutely obsessed with it for Nivanfield right now and just had to put it in for poor Chris <3

Chapter 3: Searching the Wreckage

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” ~Doctor Seuss

 

            The plane touched down and the team of six starting unloading their gear as quickly as they could so they could get started. Jill went up to Agent Martinez and told him to make sure any and all messages directed to any of them were relayed as quickly as possible. After Martinez nodded Jill turned and headed back to the rear of the plane where most of the gear was already unloaded. Jill stopped before fully exiting the plane, seeing the early morning sun coming up turning the sky shades of orange, red, and purple.

_“You ready to go, Jill?”_

Jill looked down to her left. _“Yeah Sheva, let’s get going, we need to get the boats and head out as quickly as we can.”_

Sheva nodded. _“Alright, let’s get the rest of the gear in the truck and head on down.”_

            About ten minutes later everyone was in the truck with all of their deep water survey gear in the back. Jill was driving and was actually so focused on finding what they were looking for that she decided to just speed through traffic, swerving in and out while barely missing a few people and vehicles. Most were holding on for dear life except for Agent Baird, who had seen the infamous driving of Leon S. Kennedy first hand and felt like this was a walk in the park.

            Reaching the set off point three boats were already waiting for them. Agent Baird and Den loaded up with diving suits and lights for deep underwater usage so that they could explore the majority of the wreckage. Jill and Sheva along with Claire and Agent Jackson each had a set of deep water survey gear to use from the surface since they were unable to requisition six deep-water diving suits for all of them to use. Agent Baird and Den were the first to set off as their area of search would be the easiest to find, a giant blown up underwater base isn’t very easy to miss. The rest however, had a much more obscure place to search as they were just searching North and South of the main facility’s location.

            Jill and Sheva took their boat and started heading out. After about ten minutes they found the boat Agent Baird and Den were using and headed south from it. Their area for search was about a mile in every direction south of the facility so they started to get to work. They didn’t have diving suits but Jill was able to requisition deep water probes and remote controlled robots. Jill set hers into the water and set it off into a West- South West direction while Sheva did and East- South East direction.

Crackling over the comms started after about twenty minutes when everyone started reporting in their findings. _“Agent Baird here, starting our search of the facility now, what should we be looking out for?”_

Jill tapped her chin in thought for a moment before responding. _“Keep any eye out for anything that looks like an escape pod, if you see any kind of body and it does **not** look like Agent Nivans, **move away and report it**. If there are exposed bodies infected with the C-Virus we are going to need to get an entire team out here to fish them out and make sure it doesn’t do anything to the wildlife in the water.”_

_“Copy that Ma’am, Agent Bair out.”_

_“Jill, we are starting our search directly North of the facility, do you know what the pod looks like?”_

Jill looked at Sheva and shrugged. _“I’m not completely sure to be honest Claire, it probably looks similar to the one that Chris was found in that is all I can really say about it.”_

_“Den here, Umbrella would create different escape pods depending on what part of the facility they were in because of how they were built. Some escape pods were even created as fake ones in case of an emergency like what happened here… they would have some kind of infected body within it so the person escaping wouldn’t ever be found… it’s a good thing they found the one they did.”_

_“Do you know if the one we are looking for may have had some kind of infected person in it?”_

_“Do you know what direction it was when you Chris would have been looking at the pod?”_

_“I’m not sure Agent Baird but I don’t believe there was any other escape pod besides the one Chris used and the other one a short way down from it.”_

_“Hmm… probably not then, the pods were usually built in threes, the middle one being clear and the other two having some kind of trap in it or possibly not even working at all. Hold on Jill, Den found something.”_

Jill raised an eyebrow at Sheva. _“What did you two find?”_

Silence filled the comms; Jill looked at Sheva slightly alarmed. _“Agent Baird, Den, do either of you copy?”_

Crackling over the comms. _“Bair-… interf…”_

Jill sighed. _“Of all the damn times to have interference on the comms.”_

Sheva looked at Jill and laughed. _“You can’t always trust technology these days, that is why we get in some of these messes isn’t it?”_

Jill nodded. _“So true Sheva, so true.”_ Jill tried to see if she could reach Claire. _“Claire, Agent Jackson, do you guys copy?”_

_“I copy you Jill, Agent Jackson found something and dived down real quick to check it out her, the remote controlled divers we were using weren’t getting a very good look.”_

_“Alright Claire, keep us posted on any updates and try to see if you can get to Baird and Den, we are getting too much interference where we are at.”_

_“Copy that, radio you soon.”_

            Jill looked down to the screen she was holding, she wasn’t finding much except some small pieces of debris and the light on the remote diver wasn’t helping much. Jill glanced at Sheva and she didn’t seem to be having much luck either. Jill looked back at her own screen and something glinted, catching her eye as she almost went past it.

_“Sheva, I think I might have found something here.”_

Sheva set her own screen down and walked over to Jill. _“What is it?”_

_“I don’t know… it looks like it could be a pod, what do you think?”_

Sheva studied it for a moment. _“Well… it does kind of look like a pod… that might be a door right there, can you get closer, see if we can look inside of it?”_

_“Good idea, here goes nothing.”_

            Jill used the controls to move the remote diver closer to the pod. The door looked like it might be rusted shut but the window was not completely covered with anything yet so they could still see inside. They didn’t see anything at first; the pod appeared to be empty. Jill shifted the remote diver up a bit to shine some more light into the pod. Something lurched forward and pounded on the window, causing Jill and Sheva to both jump back and almost fall off the boat in surprise.

_“Holy shit what the hell was that Jill?!”_

_“I don’t know, oh shit that freaked me out, should I move it in again?”_

Sheva breathed a sigh of relief. _“Yeah… let’s just try not to open the pod when we look.”_

            Jill nodded and moved the remote diver in closer again. The light shined inside and this time they didn’t jump back when something came crashing at the window. Agent Baird and Den Underwood were correct; some of these pods were traps. There was J’avo stuck inside the pod, but thankfully, that J’avo was not Piers.

Jill sighed. _“Good… at least we know that umbrella really does make trap pods, and that this definitely is **not** Piers.”_

Sheva smiled. _“Yeah, I just hope that one happens to be one of the Umbrella Scientists that create this shit.”_

Jill chuckled. _“One can only hope I suppose.”_

They heard some crackling over the radio and Jill quickly answered. _“Hello? Agent Valentine and Alomar here, who’s contacting, you have a lot of static.”_

_“Fou-.. ing… interfe-…”_

Jill shook her head. _“You think they are trying to say they found something?”_

Sheva shrugged. _“Sounds like it.”_

Jill tried to raise Claire over the radio. _“Claire do you copy, I think Baird and Den found something down there, want to head over to check it out.”_

_“Claire here, yeah we’ll meet you there. The pod Agent Jackson went down to check out had a freaking Nepad in it can you believe that?! I didn’t know they even had those things underwater.”_

_“I guess you never know how far Umbrella is willing to go, but the one we found had a J’avo in it. Let’s just hope that what Baird and Den found is better than ours.”_

_“Copy that, meet you guys there in about ten minutes.”_

oOoOoOoOo

            Jill, Sheva, Claire, and Agent Jackson were all situated around the boat that Agent Baird and Den were using. The interference was a lot less now that they were much closer to them, so they could now hear about ninety percent of what was said rather than half of every other word. They found a pod buried under some wreckage but weren’t able to see anything inside. They were however, able to activate some floating devices stored in the pod so now everyone was just waiting for them to float to the surface with the pod.

Jill sat down on the edge of the boat to wait. _“You think we finally found him you guys?”_

Claire looked over and nodded. _“I hope so, for Chris’s sake.”_

Sheva smiled. _“Chris’s sake or not, anyone that can save him like that is worth getting to know, or at least, I guess worth allowing him the small luxury of a heroes’ burial.”_

Jill sighed and frowned. _“Yeah, a heroes’ burial… there’s been way too many of those lately.”_

Everyone nodded in agreement. _“At least we can do this small thing though hopefully, rather than him never getting one at all.”_

            Jill was about to say something but then the pod bobbed to the surface along with Agent Baird and Den soon after it. They both climbed onto their own boat after they reached the surface and took their diving suits off. They both looked between the other four members of their group. Den walked over and grabbed a hook to latch onto the pod while Agent Baird spoke.

_“Ok, so we found this pod down there, and we are pretty sure this could be the one with Agent Nivans inside of it. Now I know he may be dead but I don’t really feel comfortable opening this out here so I would prefer us to take it to shore first, any arguments?”_

Nobody disagreed. _“Alright then, let’s take this pod to shore and crack it open.”_

oOoOoOoOo

_“Alright everybody, gather around. Den, you ready to unlock the door?”_

_“I’m ready Agent Baird.”_

_“Alright everyone, just in case this happens to **not** be Agent Nivans, get your weapons ready.”_

            One last check, everyone made sure their guns were loaded and aimed at the door to the pod. Den unlocked the pod and the door slowly slid open. There was a body slumped on the floor, but it wasn’t moving. Agent Baird moved forward carefully, and turned the body over. Jill gasped and slowly reached for her phone.

oOoOoOoOo

            Chris walked out of the office, but he could still feel the chill in the air. He didn’t know what was going on, but something was definitely strange around here. First the fingerprint scanner somehow brings Piers up like it has a will of its own, and then Chris hears his voice? Maybe he wasn’t going crazy, Jill did say she heard it too, but that doesn’t mean it was any less weird.

            He pushed past the few soldiers and other personnel that he found to head out to his truck, all the while feeling like a cold wind was blowing on the back of his neck. Reaching the truck he opened the door as quickly as he could and got in, turning it on while sighing and resting his head rest back again the seat. Piers had climbed in on the other side, and he could apparently sit in the truck but go through the door. Weird things for Piers to do indeed.

            Chris reached forward and turned on the radio, sighing and smiling slightly at what he heard come on. Chris stared forward out of his front window, remembering the spunky and quick witted ace he had known back in Edonia and China, the man who never missed a target, and Chris’s heart was no exception.

            Chris zoned out and focused on the music. He listened to the words and found himself enjoying the song so much more than he used to, now that there was something out of reach.

 _[Verse 1:]_  
What would I do without your smart mouth?  
Drawing me in, and you kicking me out  
You've got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down  
What's going on in that beautiful mind  
I'm on your magical mystery ride  
And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be alright  
  
_[Pre-Chorus:]_  
My head's under water  
But I'm breathing fine  
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind  
  
_[Chorus:]_  
'Cause all of me  
Loves all of you  
Love your curves and all your edges  
All your perfect imperfections  
Give your all to me  
I'll give my all to you  
You're my end and my beginning  
Even when I lose I'm winning  
'Cause I give you all of me  
And you give me all of you, oh oh  
  
_[Verse 2:]_  
How many times do I have to tell you  
Even when you're crying you're beautiful too  
The world is beating you down, I'm around through every mood  
You're my downfall, you're my muse  
My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues  
I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you  
  
_[Pre-Chorus:]_  
My head's under water  
But I'm breathing fine  
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind  
  
_[Chorus:]_  
'Cause all of me  
Loves all of you  
Love your curves and all your edges  
All your perfect imperfections  
Give your all to me  
I'll give my all to you  
You're my end and my beginning  
Even when I lose I'm winning  
'Cause I give you all of me  
And you give me all of you, oh oh  
  
_[Bridge:]_  
Give me all of you  
Cards on the table, we're both showing hearts  
Risking it all, though it's hard  
  
_[Chorus:]_  
'Cause all of me  
Loves all of you  
Love your curves and all your edges  
All your perfect imperfections  
Give your all to me  
I'll give my all to you  
You're my end and my beginning  
Even when I lose I'm winning  
'Cause I give you all of me  
And you give me all of you  
  
I give you all of me  
And you give me all of you, oh oh

            Chris sighed at the end of the song, wishing he could have Piers back. Unbeknownst to him Piers was sitting right next to him, staring wide-eyed and wondering just how much Chris had been going through without him.

_“Piers… it’s all my fault, I was supposed to keep my men safe.”_

Piers couldn’t think of anything to even try and say, he just kept staring at Chris. _“I should’ve listened to you, I should’ve gotten backup instead of chasing Ada Wong down… maybe then you still would have been alive.”_

            Chris sighed and drove out of the parking lot towards his house. Piers stayed silent the entire time, and Chris knew that he could still feel a strange chill nearby that kept washing over him every few minutes like he was being watched. A few times, Chris glanced to his right, only to see an empty space and not realize that there was someone looking back at him. Chris pulled up into his driveway and turned the truck off. He got out and walked inside of his house. He looked around at the mess his house had become. He sighed and went into his room, there wasn’t anyone left to care about the mess anymore.

            Piers followed Chris inside of his house and raised his eyebrows in surprise at the mess the place had become. They had both cleaned it together right before China and now there was trash and boxes everywhere. Piers watched as Chris looked at it dejectedly, then just sighed and walked into his bedroom. Chris took his phone out and sat in on the nightstand, then he just laid down on the bed and eventually fell asleep.

            Piers sat next to Chris the entire time he was asleep. He didn’t want to leave and somehow miss Chris going somewhere when he woke up. At some point in the early morning, Piers had no clue how long it had been, Chris’s phone rang. He lurched away and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and grabbed his phone. He slid his finger across the screen and answered it.

_“This is Chris Redfield, who’s this.”_

Piers was surprised at the voice he could clearly hear through the phone.

_“Chris, it’s Jill. We found him.”_


	4. Waking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris receives a call from Jill that they have found what they are looking for on their mission in China. Chris grabs a ride as quickly as he can and what he sees that they found nobody had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg I am so terrible for the ending I'm sorry but maybe the next chapter will make up for it? :)

Chapter 4: Waking Up

“We love in life, but only when what we love is gone do we truly realize how much the love meant.” ~ Unknown

 

Chris’s head snapped to attention at Jill’s words. _“What do you mean, “We found him”?”_

Jill’s excitement was barely contained through the phone. _“Chris, you know what I mean, get your butt on the first B.S.A.A. jet you can and get over to China, **we found him**.”_

Chris was starting to breathe harder. _“You mean you seriously…”_

_“ **Yes** Chris, now, GET MOVING!”_

            Chris jumped out of bed and grabbed his stuff. He snatched his keys and went out to the truck, leaving an unknown and surprised Piers to follow behind him as quickly as he could. Chris hopped in the truck and wasted no time starting it up to head down the road, tires squealing from how hard he was pushing on the gas pedal. Chris came rushing onto base and people were wondering what was going on. Nobody found out except for the pilot that Chris happened to find that would take him over to China. As soon as Chris got onto the aircraft and they were off he got Jill on the phone again, and Piers was still silent, following Chris wherever he went but the chill was no longer bothering Chris.

_“Agent Valentine here, who is calling?”_

_“Jill who do you think is calling this early?”_

_“Chris! Are you on your way to China yet?”_

_“Yeah Jill, I should be there soon. So tell me what happened when you guys were searching?”_

_“Ok well, I got Sheva Alomar, your sister Claire, a couple other agents and Claire brought a friend from TerraSave and we started searching the wreckage from the facility. Agent Baird and Claire’s friend Den Underwood are pretty current on Umbrella building designs and they started searching the main portion of the wreckage. Me and Sheva searched to the south while Claire and Agent Jackson searched to the north. Let’s just say we found a few pods that should stay shut until we get a team out here to bring them up. But Agent Baird and Den found a pod buried under some wreckage and we brought it to shore in China. We opened it up and just… **wow** , you have to see it for yourself to believe it Chris and it is really weird.”_

Chris started running a hand through his hair, not wanting to believe the implication that Jill was giving him. _“You mean you…”_

Jill sighed and gave a small laugh into the phone, as morbid as that may seem. _“ **Yes** , Chris, we did. Just get here as soon as you can.”_ Piers was watching from the rear of the plane, able to hear every word.

Chris grunted and smiled for the first time in weeks. _“Yeah Jill I am. I think it might be a little while though, planes can only go so fast.”_

Jill sighed. _“Tell me about it Chris, but try to get some sleep on the way over here if you can, getting off a plane ride with little sleep can be a bitch.”_

Chris sighed and leaned his head back. _“Alright Jill, see you guys soon.”_

Piers watched as Chris went to sleep. He moved closer, sitting down in the seat next to him to just watch. Weeks of grief were implanted on Chris’s face, and it seemed like with every passing moment it was starting to wear away. Piers got up after a few minutes and returned to the rear of the plane, keeping a watchful eye on Chris until the plane reached its destination.

 

oOoOoOoOo

 

            The pilot woke Chris up once they landed in China. Chris wiped the grogginess out of his eyes before the pilot mentioned that they had landed and once he had Chris was on high alert and ready to go running out of the plane with a Piers left to follow behind him. Once Chris got out there was already a vehicle waiting for him with a driver in it. Chris hopped in as quickly as he could and soon they were off on the way to Jill and the others, unbeknownst to them that Piers was sitting right behind them listening to everything they said.

_“So, I assume that you are Captain Chris Redfield, correct?”_

Chris nodded. _“Agent…?”_

_“Baird, Agent Baird, Sir.”_

Chris smiled. _“Are you the same Agent Baird that was helping Jill?”_

The Agent had a slight twinkle in his eye. _“Yep, Agent Valentine is an amazing agent and when she called me up to help search wreckage of an Umbrella Facility I could **not** pass that up, not that I would want to anyway.”_

Chris chuckled. _“Well, I am damn glad you decided to go along and help Agent Valentine, it means a lot.”_

Agent Baird managed a glance and smiled slightly. _“Yeah, a lot of things mean a lot these days, hopefully one day Umbrella won’t be a problem anymore.”_

Chris sighed. _“Yeah, Umbrella, Neo-Umbrella whatever the hell they want to be called, hopefully they won’t be a problem forever.”_

Agent Baird nodded. _“Well resources only last so long; even for huge corporations nothing is unlimited. Ok, we should be coming up to the pod soon and you might be kind of surprised at what you see.”_

Chris raised an eyebrow. _“What do you mean?”_

_“Well… Agent Valentine told us that you **may** have neglected to tell anyone that Piers Nivans had infected himself with the C-Virus.”_

Agent Baird paused to look over at Chris who was sitting there silently, almost watching him with suspicion. _“Don’t worry we haven’t actually told anyone about that uh… **minor** detail. But as for everything else… well like Agent Valentine said, you are going to have to see it to believe it is **extremely** strange, even by Umbrella standards.”_

Chris’ expression softened a bit and he looked surprised. _“Even by Umbrella standards, what do you mean?”_

Agent Baird shrugged. _“Well, they may create viruses yes, but I don’t yet know of one that has created a body with no pulse or heartbeat, yet is completely warm.”_

Chris narrowed his eyebrows for a moment, thinking he somehow misheard what the agent had just said. _“A… body with no heartbeat but it is still warm?”_

Agent Baird nodded. _“Just like I said, Sir, but in a moment you will be able to see it for yourself.”_

            Piers sat in the back of the vehicle drinking in every word. They found a body underwater; the body had no pulse or heartbeat. The body was **_warm_** , but how long ago did they find this body, he started to wonder.

            Another two minutes and they were on the beach about thirty feet from where Jill, Claire, and the others were standing. Once they got out Chris started moving over to them as quickly as he could, leaving Agent Baird just following behind quietly. Piers stayed inside of the vehicle but felt a strange pull urging him to get out and follow Chris, so he decided to oblige the feeling and do so.

            Chris got closer to the body, not tearing his eyes away from it. They had it covered with a sandy colored cloth to keep it mostly hidden, the face wasn’t visible and Chris was almost shaking with anticipation. Chris got within ten feet and stopped, looking into the face of each person that was present.

Jill walked forward and smiled, placing a reassuring hand on Chris’s shoulder. _“We found him Chris; you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”_

Chris smiled. _“Alright Jill.”_ Chris looked to each and every person standing there, and then rubbed his head awkwardly. _“I uh… want to thank you guys for doing this… um…”_

Claire laughed. _“Out of words already bro?”_

Chris just shrugged and smiled at Claire. _“Yeah I guess, so just out of curiosity who actually found the pod?”_

Den stepped forward with Agent Baird coming up behind Chris. _“That would be me and Agent Baird, I know that the ones Claire and Jill’s teams found were trap pods so we might want to et those out of the water as soon as we can but for now let’s focus on this one I suppose.”_

            Everyone nodded and moved over to the body that was covered with the cloth. Jill stood near where the head would be, and everyone else stood a slight further distance away so Chris could have some room. Chris stepped up to Jill and she nodded. Chris kneeled down and grabbed the edge of the cloth.

_“Agent Baird told you about how odd this is, right Chris?”_

Chris nodded. _“Yeah, he did.”_

_“Alright then, go ahead and take it off.”_

            Piers started feeling a bigger pull the closer Chris got to the body. Chris started to pull it back and then Piers’ mind went blank, his eyes closed and he lost all sense of what was happening.

Chris stumbled back when the face was revealed. _“How in the hell?!”_

Everyone stepped forward again, with Jill trying to calm Chris down. _“Like we were telling you Chris, it’s really weird. He doesn’t look infected **at all** , and we found his body **yesterday** and it is still warm. I mean, these viruses can do some weird things but keeping a pulseless body warm for **weeks** , how the hell does that work?”_

Chris got over his initial shock and kneeled next to Piers’ head again, looking at it for a moment. _“I don’t know but… does his face look like it’s getting color back into it?”_

Everyone looked at Chris confused, and then looked to Piers and a few gasps broke out. _“But… he has no pulse how is his body…”_

            Speech was cut off as color started rapidly coming back to Piers’ pale white face. Chris was staring at him confused and then Piers’ body lurched off the ground, slamming into Chris’ face and knocking him back while Piers doubled over retching out seawater.

Sheva gasped and stepped back. _“Holy shit, is he alive?!”_

Chris got over the initial head-butt he took and got back on his knee and looked at Piers retching seawater onto the ground. _“What in the hell… P-Piers?!”_

            Piers didn’t answer but continued expelling seawater from his body. Chris moved clover and started rubbing his hand in circles on his back, hoping to at least give him some kind of comfort. After a few minutes Piers was done, apparently trying to expel several weeks’ worth of seawater that had found its way into his pod while he was stuck underwater. Piers started regaining his breath, looking around carefully at each person that was standing around him.

            Piers felt the rubbing on his back and eventually let himself drop to the ground, rolling over onto his back as he did so. He looked around at all the faces that were looking at him and tried to give a reassuring smile but couldn’t feel his mouth so he didn’t know if he actually moved. Piers saw an older man kneeling right next to him, presumably the one who had been rubbing his back in that secret way he enjoyed when he was in pain.

 _“W-who…”_ Piers’ voice started cracking from the disuse. _“Who are you guys?”_

            A few people gasped and stared at him. Chris looked on in shock as Piers passed out right in front of them. Chris looked at Jill and Claire dismayed.

_“He… he doesn’t remember any of us…?”_


	5. Recovery Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piers wakes up with almost no memory of what happened, and has the barest hint of memories of Chris and others. Den splits off from the group to head to the nearby TerraSave facilities while the rest head to the awaiting aircraft piloted by Agent Martinez.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day! Take that squirrels! (after my short crisis of typing and then literally the whole thing disappeared)

Chapter 5: Recovery Begins

“Recovery begins from the darkest moment” ~ John Major

 

Jill looked at Piers like he might be a ticking time bomb. _“I… I’m sure that’s only temporary Chris but how… how is he even alive right now?”_

Agent Jackson stepped forward. _“You said he had some strange form of the C-Virus right?”_

Jill nodded. _“Well… maybe it worked a **hell** of a lot differently than the other ones, I mean these things can really mess with your mind so maybe this one just… well… **really** messed with his mind and somehow put him into a deathlike state?”_

Chris sat back and looked at her. _“Then how do you explain him not looking like a J’avo then, I **saw** him when he pushed me out, he was mutated to all hell.”_

Agent Jackson shrugged. _“I can’t answer that. For now though why don’t we try getting him to a hospital or something, somewhere we can keep him safe, until we figure out what actually happened to him?”_

Chris nodded his agreement and looked back down at Piers’ sleeping face, he seemed so much more at peace than he ever had been. _“Yeah, that might be a good thing to do. Claire, would you be able to help me get him into the vehicle?”_

Claire stepped forward, all too glad to be able to help her brother. _“Sure thing Chris, let’s pick him up carefully now, you get his head I’ll get his legs.”_

            Chris nodded and moved closer to Piers’ head. Agent Baird walked over and started up the vehicle while Chris and Claire gingerly lifted Piers off of the ground. They carried Piers over to the vehicle with the rest of the team following them in case something happened. Since there wasn’t enough room in the vehicle they loaded Piers up in the back and Chris sat with him so he wouldn’t go flying all over the place. Claire smiled and decided to go into the back with him while everyone else sat up in the front.

            They started driving off to where Agent Martinez had their earlier aircraft touched down, still awaiting orders to take off. Jill phoned ahead and told Martinez to get the aircraft ready for takeoff.

            Chris and Claire were talking quietly when Piers started to stir. He opened his eyes up slightly and looked at the two sitting with him. He smiled slightly then looked away, nervous. Claire smiled back at him even though he couldn’t see it and Chris looked at him, surprised that he was waking up.

_“H-hi… um… who are you guys?”_

Chris’ eyes widened and Claire pursed her lips. _“Do you remember anything, Piers?”_

Piers narrowed his eyebrows. _“Remember what, exactly?”_

Claire pointed to herself and then to Chris. _“Us, do you remember us at all?”_

Piers swallowed and looked at the floor of the truck as it bumped along the road. _“No… what are your names?”_

Claire sighed and looked at Chris, he still had an arm wrapped around Piers but his eyes were full of hurt and sadness. _“I’m Claire, and he’s Chris.”_

Piers looked over at Chris for a moment. _“Chris…”_ he sounded it out carefully like the very word itself could break if he said it wrong. Claire looked over at Chris and saw a spark of light in his eyes.

 _“Y-yeah Piers?”_ Chris’ excitement was barely contained.

_“You l-look… familiar…”_

            Chris’ jaw was hanging open in a half smile. Claire held in a barely contained laugh. Piers blinked slowly and sighed, leaning his head into Chris’ shoulder. Chris returned the gesture and slightly leaned his head in as well, rubbing Piers’ shoulder in small circles.

_“Redfield…”_

Chris gasped as Piers feel back asleep on his shoulder. It was becoming more and more clear just how bad this memory loss Piers was having might be. Out of every possible thing he could remember, he was at least able to remember Chris’ last name.

Chris looked dismayed but Claire just smiled. _“Hey bro, it’ll be ok. At least he was able to remember something, just let him sleep thought it will probably help him more than anything else right now.”_

Chris sighed and leaned back a little bit, making sure to keep Piers’ head where it was so he wouldn’t wake up. _“You’re probably right it’s just… **wow** …”_

Sheva looked back towards them. _“You guys doing fine back there?”_

Chris smiled and waved. _“Yeah Sheva, we’re doing great, Piers just woke up again is all.”_

Sheva raised an eyebrow and smirked. _“Good, anyone who can work with you should be tough as nails Chris.”_

Chris chuckled. _“Yep, you and Piers both Sheva.”_

Sheva scoffed playfully. _“Oh I don’t know Piers might be tough as nails but I think I’m tough as a lion.”_

Chris rolled his eyes. _“Can this lion survive a building blowing up underwater?”_

Sheva laughed. _“Ok well maybe he has me beat there.”_

Claire decided to lie down and stare up into the sky. _“So, are we taking him to a B.S.A.A. place or a TerraSave place to help him?”_

Chris and Sheva both shrugged. _“What do you think will work better for him?”_

Claire shrugged as well. _“I don’t know… TerraSave has a hospital nearby so we could go there quicker, but at the same time being around other members of the B.S.A.A. could help him with his memory issues, just as well we don’t really equip ourselves to, well, like you guys do with invading entire cities we don’t really do that sort of thing.”_

Chris’ face soured a bit. _“Claire you aren’t suggesting…”_

Claire pursed her lips for a moment. _“What do you… **OH!** No not Piers! I’m talking about for those other pods we found in the water.”_

Chris nodded. _“Alright… you ready to help me get Piers out? I can see the aircraft over there.”_

Claire smiled. _“Yeah bro, so B.S.A.A. it is then?”_

Chris shrugged. _“I guess it is.”_

            Agent Baird pulled the vehicle into park about twenty feet from the plane. Jill, Sheva, Den, Agent Baird, and Agent Jackson all got out. Jill took Agents Baird and Jackson into the plane to speak with Martinez while Den and Sheva stayed outside with Chris and Claire.

_“So Miss Redfield, is there anything I need to report to TerraSave before you head off?”_

Claire thought for a moment. _“Not anything specific that I can think of. Just make sure that they know the B.S.A.A. will be here soon to deal with those pods down there, and have them help the B.S.A.A. search for anything else that might be buried under the wreckage in the water, we can’t afford anything infected with the C-Virus having a chance to come back up.”_

_“Duly noted, Ma’am, I’m going to head back to our nearby facilities and see what else has been going on around here.”_

_“Thank you Den, and thank you for helping Piers.”_

Den smiled. _“No problem Miss Redfield, anything to help anyone is all we can do these days.”_

_“All too true, good luck!”_

            Chris, Claire, and Sheva smiled and waved Den on as he climbed into another nearby vehicle and started it up to head to the nearby TerraSave facilities. Chris looked at Piers, who was still next to him with his head on Chris’ shoulder. Claire climbed out of the truck and stood next to Sheva.

_“Feeling better yet bro?”_

Chris smiled. _“Yeah, lots better now Claire.”_

Claire giggled. _“Good to hear it Chris!”_

 _“Yeah I just hope tha-”_ Chris was cut off when he felt a stirring on his shoulder.

Piers opened his eyes lazily and looked around, noticing Chris and Claire but not recognizing Sheva. _“H-hi guys…”_ Piers lifted his head up and rested it on Chris’ shoulder.

Sheva chuckled. _“Hello there, still tired buddy?”_

Piers tried to shrug but instead almost dozed off again. _“Yeah…”_

Chris smiled and ruffled Piers’ hair. _“Don’t ruffle m-m… hair…”_

Everyone chuckled at Piers as he tried to drift off into sleep again. _“Hey buddy, don’t go to sleep yet, you want to try walking to the plane with us?”_

Piers shifted his eyes up a little bit. _“Yeah… I could try…”_ Piers yawned again earning another laugh from everyone.

Chris grabbed Piers’ arm and put it over his shoulder. _“Alright then, let’s go, just don’t fall asleep on me now.”_

            Claire hopped out of the vehicle before Chris and Piers got off. Chris slowly got up with Piers and started leading him to the edge of the vehicle. Chris let Piers sit down slowly and then hopped out of the vehicle. Piers slid off the edge of the truck and almost fell to the ground before Chris caught him. Piers looked up a little bit and grinned slightly but it was obvious he was fighting really hard not to go back to sleep.

            Sheva walked on to the plane while Claire stayed back with Chris, who was pretty much just dragging Piers along. Claire waved a hand in front of Piers’ face to make sure he was still awake and pulled her hand back when his eyes snapped open for a moment. He started trying to put one foot in front of the other but soon he was back to dragging his feet along. After another minute Claire and Chris could hear him snoring as he was dragged along to the plane. Claire looked at Chris and shrugged with a smile on her face.

_“So how long you think he’s going to be like this bro?”_

_“I don’t know Claire… hopefully not that long right?”_

Claire shrugged again. _“I don’t know, I mean who knows how long he was out and what exactly the virus did to him, hopefully he’s just extremely tired from all of it and not anything else.”_

Chris raised a skeptical eyebrow at Claire. _“What do you mean?”_

Claire shifted her gaze down for a moment but then looked back up at Chris. _“Well… what I mean is that we found him with **no** pulse at all even though his body was warm Chris. All I am saying is that I hope he stays with us, who knows what that virus really did to him.”_

Chris looked down and sighed. _“Yeah… hopefully we can find out if he is even still infected, maybe he can somehow tell us what happened to him?”_

_“Yeah bro, hopefully he can.”_

_“You know… before Jill asked for your guys’ help… there was some weird stuff going on at the base we were at. A fingerprint scanner pulled up Piers’ file and we heard his voice but couldn’t see him… you don’t think….”_

Claire waited for Chris to continue but he stopped for a moment and looked at Claire. _“What bro, think what?”_

_“You don’t think… he was some kind of ghost, do you?”_

Claire scratched her chin. _“Well I mean… I don’t think that is actually possible but I guess you never know these days.”_

Piers’ eyes snapped open for a moment before they immediately became half lidded again. _“How long was… I out?”_

Claire chuckled. _“Not that long Piers, how you doing?”_

Piers yawned and tried to step in tune with Chris. _“So tired… I feel like I haven’t slept in months…”_

Claire smiled. _“Don’t worry we’ll be on the plane soon and you can sleep all you want on your way back over._

Piers nodded weakly as they took their first step onto the plane and Chris shook him a little. _“Hey Piers, c’mon now don’t fall asleep on us now._

            Chris didn’t get a chance to keep him awake, within the next twenty seconds Piers was already asleep again, his snores barely audible over the sound of the plane’s engines. Chris got him up the loading ramp and into a seat towards the rear of the plane. Chris sat him down in the seat next to the window and went up to talk to Jill.

_“Hey Jill, we’re ready to go.”_

Jill turned around at the sound of Chris’ voice. _“Hey Chris, you guys all loaded up in the back?”_

_“Yep, we’re ready to take off Jill.”_

Jill smiled and turned around. _“Alright. Agent Martinez, take us home.”_

_“Copy that Ma’am.”_


	6. Flying Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piers and Chris have a nice little chat on the plane ride home, while Chris and Claire eventually have one out of earshot of the entire crew, or was it?

Chapter 6: Flying Home

“Even the deepest love will never be less than a fleeting memory waiting to surface.” ~Unknown

 

 

 

            Chris watched as everyone took their places towards the front of the plane, pretty much right behind the pilot’s door. Chris didn’t mind too much, there was plenty of room between him and Piers and the rest of the group on the plane. Chris grabbed a pillow and slid it behind Piers’ head while he covered him with a light blanket. Chris heard a small sigh from Piers and smiled. Chris looked back towards the front of the place and noticed Claire was looking at him with a slight smirk. He raised an eyebrow and she turned back around after giving him a thumbs up.

            Chris smiled and felt some shuffling next to him. He looked over to see that Piers was waking up a little bit and chuckled quietly while Piers looked around, groggy and slightly confused. Chris slid an arm around Piers’ shoulder while he got a lazy, half-lidded look in response. Chris smiled at Piers and got a half-smile in return that made him smile even bigger. Piers’ head lolled slightly and he rested in on Chris’ shoulder, staring into the man’s face.

 _“Where are we?”_ Piers asked through a yawn.

Chris chuckled. _“We’re on our way home buddy, don’t worry.”_

_“Thanks… do I… do I know you from somewhere?”_

Chris tried to keep the sadness and hopefulness in his voice down at the same time. _“Y-yeah you do… do you know where though?”_

Piers sighed from his resting place on Chris’ shoulder. _“Not… not really but I just… I feel like I **know** you but at the same time I just… I don’t know and it’s so frustrating.”_

Chris smiled inwardly. _“Well don’t get too frustrated, that will probably only make it worse.”_

Piers smiled and looked to the front of the plane. _“I guess… and I feel like I know a couple of those guys too but… it just all seems so blurry, it sucks not knowing but **feeling** like you **do** know, do you know what I mean?”_

Chris raised an eyebrow and remembered back to a bar in Edonia, growing a slight smile as he did so even though it brought a little sense of dread. _“Yeah… I know what you mean, it can really suck not knowing why you feel like you know someone but once you do… no matter what it feels like after, you will always feel better for just **knowing**.”_

Piers sighed again, still keeping his eyes towards the front of the plane. _“I mean… I feel like I should know almost every single one of them and there is just one name that keeps going through my head but I can’t place it to anyone, but I think the closest person might be… you.”_

Chris held in a sharp intake of breath at the relief. _“So, do you know that it is me, or do you think it is me?”_

Piers shrugged and sighed. _“I… I **think** it’s you but I just… don’t know for sure.”_

Chris looked away for a moment. _“Do you remember anything about anyone else here?”_

Piers sighed again and took a closer look at each individual person, his eyes eventually resting on Jill. _“She… looks familiar… I think she had something happen to her and… someone I knew spent a lot of time looking for her no matter what people said.”_

Chris smiled. _“That’s Jill, and yeah, she did have something happen to her but no need to worry about that anymore.”_

Piers shifted his vision over to center on Claire. _“And her… she’s the sister to… whoever it is.”_

Chris was started to get a little more excited as Piers continued to remember things. _“So, who is she the sister to then, Piers?”_

Piers pursed his lips for a moment. _“I don’t… I don’t know but… he was important for something.”_

Chris raised an eyebrow at Piers. _“ **What** , was he important for, Piers?”_

Piers sighed. _“He was… someone… important…”_

Chris dropped his voice to a whisper. _“Why was he important to **you** , Piers?”_

Piers looked up at Chris’ face. _“I… loved him…”_

Chris chuckled and pulled Piers in closer by his shoulder while grabbing something out. _“Piers, I want you to look at something for me, is that ok?”_

Piers yawned and nodded for Chris to show him something. _“What is it?”_

 _“This.”_ Chris took out something on a chain and set it down into Piers’ hand, letting him look at it for himself.

            Piers looked over the object in his hand with a half-lidded gaze, quickly starting to fall asleep again. He turned it over in his palm, feeling the cool metal against his skin as he slowly traced over the ridges and indentations in it. He pursed his sleeps as he started to slowly mouth out the words that were inscribed upon the item.

 _“Chris Redfield…”_ Piers looked back up into Chris’ face, searching for any form of emotion.

 _“What does that name mean to you, Piers?”_ Chris asked with a growing inward smile.

Piers started to smile himself. _“He’s…”_

Chris raised an eyebrow and pulled Piers in even closer. _“He’s what, Piers?”_

Piers laughed to himself and smiled even wider through his half-lidded eyes. _“He’s the man sitting right next to me that I’ve been…_ ” Piers yawned, starting to fall asleep on Chris’ shoulder. _“… in love with since I met him…”_

Chris smiled and laughed quietly as Piers fell asleep. _“Have a good sleep Ace…”_

            Chris finally started to relax, leaning back slightly but still letting Piers’ head rest on him and tried not to disturb his sleep. Chris saw Claire glancing back at them again with a smile, and Chris returned the look with a smile of his own. Claire motioned for Chris to come up towards the middle of the plane to talk with her and he shrugged. He looked over at Piers and grabbed the pillow, setting it behind his head and making sure that he wasn’t going to fall out of the seat or anything, and then moved up to talk with Claire.

Sitting down a row behind her, Chris could see her still looking past him at Piers with an inquisitive gaze. _“What’s up sis?”_

Claire switched her gaze from Piers’ sleeping form to her brother. _“Not much, I was just able to hear a tiny bit of what was going on back here with your guys’ secret freaking whispering. So what’s up with Piers?”_

Chris looked back behind him and smiled before returning back to Claire. _“He finally remembered, or at least, he remembered a little bit for now.”_

Claire raised an eyebrow and then winked at Chris. _“So how much did he actually remember bro?”_

Chris smiled. _“He uh… he remembered **me** , or at least, a little bit about me.”_

Claire dropped to a whisper to keep everything quiet. _“That’s great bro! He’ll be back to you in no time!”_

Chris rubbed the back of his head nervously. _“Yeah… that’ll be good, but I mean… what kind of impression did that virus leave on him? Is he going to remember anything we went through at all or will he ever remember the stuff that’s already happened?”_

Claire shrugged in response. _“I can’t answer that for you bro, but maybe the doctors and scientists can help you out a little bit more with that than I ever can yeah?”_

Chris chuckled and leaned his arm onto a nearby chair. _“Yeah I guess they probably could, you never were one for sciency stuff.”_

Claire scoffed. _“Oh come on Chris, just because you’re big badass B.S.A.A. material doesn’t mean I don’t have my own qualities for the fight on Bio-terrorism.”_

Chris chuckled. _“Yeah, so how is the Terra Save operation in China going?”_

Claire shrugged. _“As good as you could hope for I guess. Not everything is taken care of yet and some people are still inside the quarantine zone but Terra Save is doing what it can.”_

Chris nodded. _“You guys have any problems with the B.S.A.A. men stationed there?”_

Claire gasped in mock surprise. _“No, no, no, not at all Chris. In fact, they have been a lot of help for us because not everyone in Terra Save is really equipped or trained to deal with the actual B.O.W.s themselves when they come crawling out of the wood works.”_

Chris nodded again. _“Great, it’s always good to see that organizations can work together to help lower the threat of bio-terrorism.”_

Claire gave Chris a thumbs up. _“That it is, everyone needs all the help they can get but for right now let’s just focus on helping your little soldier boy huh?”_

Chris laughed and turned to look back at Piers again who was snoring softly. _“Yep. I’m focusing all of my attention on Piers as much as I can, I’m not losing him again.”_

Claire smiled and got up to give her brother a hug over the seat which he returned in kind. _“No you are bro, you ain’t losing someone as good as he is a second time, he’s a keeper and you know it!”_

Chris turned a little red at what Claire said. _“Shhh Claire damn, I don’t even know if Jill actually knows about that or not.”_

Claire giggled quietly. _“Do you really think she is going to care Chris?”_

Chris shrugged. _“I don’t know, maybe she will, maybe she won’t, guess I can’t really say unless I ask her but regulations are regulations so I don’t think I will tell her about it to be honest with you.”_

Claire looked passed Chris and smiled, something was moving in the back of the plane. _“Alright bro,”_ Claire dropped her voice to a whisper. _“I think your soldier boy is waking up, go sit with him alright? Honestly I think a couple of the others might be scared to even if they don’t show it.”_

Chris sighed and got up to return to Piers. _“Thanks Claire… and I guess it was probably too good to be true that we wouldn’t have to deal with anyone being scared of Piers.”_

Claire shrugged. _“Good luck bro, but you know anyone will be scared of someone infected with a virus no matter who it is and what they have done.”_

_“That is all too true, see you later Claire.”_

_“Cya later bro.”_

            Chris and Claire got over and returned to their respective parts of the plane. Claire received a quick glance or two when she returned but nobody said anything. Chris returned to his seat next to Piers, who was now slowly starting to wake up again. When Chris sat down he put his arm around Piers again as he started to become more fully awake.

Eyelids fluttering open, Piers quickly looked at Chris’ face and pursed his lips. _“Chris…”_

Chris’ heart fluttered and almost melted at the way Piers let the name come out of his lips. _“Yeah Piers?”_

Piers snuggled in closer to Chris’ warmth. _“I love you… and I’m tired as hell…”_

Chris chuckled at Piers. _“Don’t worry, you can sleep all you want Piers.”_

 _“Thanks…”_ In no time Piers was back to sleep as the plane slowly approached the landing zone.


	7. Mission Accepted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire and Jill receive news of a lead in China to help understand what is happening with Piers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know a lot of dialogue. I was writing this last night, a lot of this was from a conversation that I said would not end up in the story. Yeah... that did not work out too well. Enjoy! =)

Chapter 7: Mission Accepted

_“Love is not always defined by spending a life with the one you love.” ~Unknown_

_“Watch his head damn it!”_

_“Sorry! I got him, sorry!”_

_“Just watch what the hell you’re doing next time, I’d rather not kill him by trying to help him.”_

_“Yes Ma’am, sorry Agent Valentine.”_

            Jill sighed and watched the hospital staff come off the plane with Piers on a stretcher. He was passed out cold and Chris took some prodding to finally let the hospital crew take him off their hands, for the moment at least. The rest of their party came off of the plane, stretching and groaning from the plane flight back to the United States. Jill caught Claire’s eye and Claire mouthed the words *Talk to you soon* while Jill raised an eyebrow but received no verbal response. Jill saw Sheva get off as well but she immediately had to board another jet to head back to the West African branch to help deal with a spreading infection.

            Chris came off the plane with Agents Baird and Jackson, his vision almost completely focused on the stretcher carrying Piers. Claire walked passed Jill, heading ahead of the hospital staff into the building, mentioning something about needing to make a call. Agents Baird and Jackson stepped over to Jill as Chris stayed at the bottom of the loading ramp, watching Piers disappear into the crowd.

_“Ma’am, are we currently needed for anything else?”_

Jill swept her gaze from Chris to the Agents standing before her. _“No, but stay within the city, I may have more need of you two in the near future."_

Both agents nodded. _“Yes Ma’am, we will be awaiting our orders.”_

Jill nodded in return. _“Good, dismissed Agents.”_

            Agents Baird and Jackson walked off towards the hospital, heading for the cafeteria to grab some nourishment before heading off to the nearby B.S.A.A. base. Chris walked up to Jill, seeing the other agents walk off, and seeing Claire walking ahead of the hospital staff mentioning something about contacting her Terra Save friend in China.

_“Jill, so how do you think everything might be going with him then?”_

Jill shrugged and gave Chris a look of sympathy, thinking slightly on the bit of the conversation between Chris and his sister she had overheard last night. _“I don’t know Chris, we have to let them do their job I’m sure they can do it right. Also Chris, is there any… **other** reason why you would be so concerned for Agent Nivans?”_

Chris almost took a step back but stopped himself, suddenly turning red and looking nervous. _“Uh… what do you mean by that? He saved my life I mean… why wouldn’t I be concerned for him?”_

Jill looked at the door to the hospital that was now opening with Piers going through it and then back to Chris. _“I… overheard some stuff last night. So tell me, are you two really…?”_

Chris shifted his eyes away for a moment. _“Um… yeah… look I know there are regulations but…”_

Jill chuckled and Chris looked at her confused. _“What?”_

_“Chris I wasn’t really concerned with regulations.”_

_“You weren’t? But I mean… you have been on my ass about regulation after regulation…”_

_“Except one regulation, Chris.”_

Chris furrowed his eyebrows. _“What regulation… wait are you talking about…”_

_“The dating regulations Chris.”_

Chris finally had his revelation. _“So you mean you… and me… you wanted that to…”_

Jill chuckled at Chris’ stuttering. _“Yeah, but I guess I can see that probably won’t ever happen.”_

Chris cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head nervously. _“Yeah…”_

Jill chuckled and smiled. _“Don’t worry you old bear; I won’t try anything you wouldn’t be interested in.”_

_“Yeah… so uh… what’s going on with all this then…?”_

Jill shrugged. _“Claire is getting back into contact with Den Underwood, her Terra Save contact back in China. He was looking into some of this stuff for us so we can hopefully try and learn a little bit more of what happened to Piers and why he doesn’t look… well, look like he was ever infected to begin with. As for Piers himself, we are just going to run some tests and see what we might be able to find out about it.”_

 _“Him.”_ Chris said with a slight hint of anger.

Jill looked confused for a moment. _“What do you mean?”_

_“Him, Jill.”_

_“Him what?”_

_“Him. You said *it*, the word is *him* not *it.*”_

Jill pursed her lips and held up her hands. _“Chris I’m sorry I didn’t mean to say *it* you know I would never have meant that I know he is still a person. Honestly, it was a slip of the tongue I’m sorry I was actually trying to refer to the virus.”_

_“Then what the hell else do we need to know, he was infected with the C-Virus.”_

Jill smirked slightly but it died quickly. _“But it wasn’t **just** the C-Virus Chris, it was an enhanced version of it, honestly though why the heck did you never tell anyone what happened?”_

Jill was surprised at the burst of anger from Chris. _“Because he was and is still a damn good soldier! Knowing all the shit the higher ups pull they would have used that to erase him from anything but people’s memories and I wasn’t going to let that happen after the stupidly heroic shit he did Jill!”_

_“Chris, calm down I was just asking why you never told anyone, I know he seems find but that still would have been something good to know!”_

Chris sighed, rubbing his tired face with his hands. _“Ok, fine, whatever Jill. Do you need anything from me right now?”_

Jill tapped her chin in thought for a moment. _“No, I don’t think so. I need to go talk to Claire and see if her Terra Save contact came up with anything so… see you around Chris?”_

            Chris huffed in response and walked away without saying anything. Jill watched him walk away with a look of regret and feeling a little sad. Jill followed behind Chris so that she could find Claire somewhere in the building and talk about anything that may have been discovered in China. On her way in Jill noticed Agents Baird and Jackson talking in a corner of the waiting room, one of them slipping her a quick glance but she ignored it and moved on. Chris was also in the waiting room but he looked like he was about to pass out harder than Piers had done up to this point.

_“Nurse, can I get some directions please?”_

_“Yes, Ms. Valentine, what do you need?”_

_“I’m looking for Claire Redfield, she came into the building to make a call, have you seen her?”_

The nurse stopped in thought for a moment. _“Try room 002 we use that room for important calls most of the time, I think she may have gone there.”_

Jill nodded and let the nurse go on her way. _“Thank you.”_

            Jill made her way through the building and down to the basement where room 002 was, finding the door and knocking on the door before opening it. When she walked in Claire was still on the phone talking to someone. She held up her hand for Jill to stop and spent another moment on the phone before hanging it up.

_“Hey Jill.”_

_“Hey Claire, you wanted to tell me something earlier?”_

Claire pursed her lips. _“Yeah… Den thinks he may have found something worth our while in China, but he thinks we may have to go into an occupied Neo-Umbrella facility.”_

Jill narrowed her eyes. _“So would this have anything to do with Piers?”_

Claire shrugged. _“He thinks it could. He found mention in some logs that him and Agent Baird pulled up from the wreckage that indicate something similar to the Enhanced C-Virus or another vial of the kind Piers took that nobody ever knew about. According to Den not even the woman that masterminded this whole thing even knew about this fourth vial. It sounds like it may be a combination of the other three and it produced some very strange side effects, and they are really close to what is going on with Piers.”_

_“So what do you think we should do then Claire?”_

_“Well, I would say trying out this lead couldn’t hurt but then again this is Neo-Umbrella we are talking about so you never know. I would suggest taking Agent Baird with us as well since he seems to know a lot about these Umbrella buildings so he could be invaluable in our search.”_

Jill nodded. _“Ok so you, Agent Baird, Den, and me, are all going to head into a Neo-Umbrella facility to see if we can find information regarding Piers’ condition. Does Den have any idea what we are looking for?”_

_“That I do not really know, I just know that he said it is the best lead he could find to see what is going on here. It **is** and umbrella facility so we will probably find files on that virus and all kinds of other things we don’t even know about.”_

_“Yeah that is probably true, so when should we get going? Oh and what of Agent Jackson, should I bring her along as well?”_

Claire shrugged. _“The more the merrier, it can’t hurt to have any more people along.”_

_“Alright, I’ll go find them and let them know what we are doing.”_

            Jill stepped out of the room to go find the agents as Claire got another call on her phone. Jill headed to the mess hall first and was surprised to see it packed, most people hated hospital food. She found Agent Baird and Jackson in a corner of the cafeteria. They were both standing next to a window looking out of it as they talked together silently. Jill stepped up and cleared her throat. She received a short glance from Agent Baird before both agents turned around and saluted her.

_“At east agents.”_

_“Ma’am, do you need us for something?”_

Jill swept her gaze from Agent Baird to Jackson. _“Yes, I do.”_

_“What is the mission Ma’am?”_

Jill thought for a moment, looking Agent Jackson over. _“How confident are you in your combat skills?”_

_“Ma’am?”_

_“How confident are you in your combat skills, Agent Jackson?”_

_“Uh…”_ Agent Jackson looked over at Baird for a moment confused. _“Pretty confident I mean… I can hold my own against Baird here and he’s pretty damn good.”_

Jill nodded, she knew all about Baird’s exceptional CQC skills. _“Good then, we have a mission to check out a Neo-Umbrella facility as a lead to what is occurring with Agent Nivans. Agent Baird, are you at all possibly familiar with Neo-Umbrella facilities?”_

Agent Baird waved his hand dismissively. _“There is nothing unique about them; they just change the name to seem like something they are not. I am quite capable of navigating their buildings if that is what you are asking of me.”_

Jill nodded. _“Good, and I hope you know more than just the building schematics because we may need to get into their systems, although on that fact I am not quite certain yet.”_

_“Well, yes I am. May I ask what we are going to be looking for?”_

_“We have a lead from Den Underwood, Claire’s Terra Save contact from China that this facility may have files and test results on a very similar strain of the C-Virus that Agent Nivans was infected with that nobody knew about, not even the mastermind behind the China incident.”_

Agent Baird raised an eyebrow. _“Well… I actually happen to know exactly what you are speaking of.”_

Jill raised an eyebrow but she didn’t say anything, Agent Jackson looked at him as well, it seemed both were starting to become a little suspicious of Agent Baird. _“Ok then, we can definitely use your knowledge.”_

_“Agreed then, when should we be expected to report for duty, Ma’am?”_

Jill tapped her chin in thought for a moment. _“Report outside Agent Nivans’ room tomorrow at 0900 hours and we will head out to begin our search, come with whatever gear you will need Agents.”_

 _“Yes Ma’am.”_ Both agents saluted Jill as she walked away.


	8. Arriving at the Compound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It might be somewhat early where I am but I know for some people it is already July first! Stay tuned because I have a surprise coming up at this very special occasion! ;)

Chapter 8: Arriving at the Compound

_“Former enemies and new friends can hide in the shadows, even when once they were thought of as friend or foe they can change in the blink of an eye.”_

            Jill knocked on the door before opening it to walk into the room. She saw Chris’ tired face watching Piers from a chair right next to him, but at least he was still able to smile. He looked up when Jill opened the door and waved to her. She smiled in response and pulled up another chair next to him.

_“Hey Chris, how you holding up?”_

He shrugged. _“Better than I could have been I guess… it’s just so strange he doesn’t really look like he’s infected.”_

_“Yeah… that’s what we are going to try and find out. Me, Claire, and the other Agents are heading out today on a lead, might be able to find some stuff to help us understand what’s going on with Piers.”_

Chris raised an eyebrow. _“Are you sure, do you need help, do you guys know what you’re going to find, who all is going?”_

Jill raised her hands. _“Chris, Chris, calm down we will be fine. You just stay here and watch over Piers for us ok?”_

_“Alright… nothing better happen to Claire though or I’m coming across the world in a heartbeat to kick some ass.”_

Jill smiled. _“Yeah Chris, everyone knows how much you love your sister.”_

Chris chuckled and lightly stroked Piers’ hair. _“Yep… almost just as much as this guy.”_

Jill raised an eyebrow. _“Almost? Well in the first place that **does** take a lot of love, but why just almost?”_

Chris shrugged. _“As much as I love Piers… nothing is stronger than a love for family.”_

Jill nodded. _“That I can understand.”_

            They heard a knock at the door and Agent Baird walked in, heavily armed for the day ahead. Jill nodded as he came in and leaned against a wall, watching Piers with an expressionless face.

_“Good morning Agent Valentine, Captain Redfield.”_

Chris nodded to him. _“Good morning, Agent Baird is it?”_

_“Yes Sir, that would be me.”_

_“Good morning Agent, did you need something?”_ Jill checked her watch to see it was rather early for him to be there.

Agent Baird nodded. _“Yes Ma’am. I needed to talk to you about a –“_

            Agent Baird looked down for a moment when his phone began to ring. The screen lit up when he pulled it out and scowled at it.

_“Excuse me for a moment. I should take this call.”_

Jill waved him on. _“Go ahead, Agent.”_

            Agent Baird nodded and stepped out of the room, take a few turns to make sure he was out of earshot of any nearby personnel. Jill watched him as he walked out; something just didn’t seem right about him. Jill looked back over to Chris and smiled, but he caught on that she thought something was wrong.

_“Jill, what’s wrong, you seem like you aren’t too trusting of that Agent right now.”_

Jill shrugged. _“He just seems a little… off… I know he used to be a former employee of the Umbrella Corporation, but then I do not really know to what capacity he was in their employ. Sometimes he just seems odd… he says that he helped make their buildings and it may have been a while but he seems too… **combat oriented** to have been any kind of builder.”_

_“Well, you don’t really know just what anyone is capable of these days anymore.”_

Jill sighed. _“I guess you’re right… but I’m still skeptical about him for the moment, something just isn’t right.”_

Chris shrugged. _“Just make sure to keep a closer eye on him so he doesn’t do anything you won’t see coming.”_

_“Point taken. Do you think I should go find him or just wait here, seems odd that he would have gotten a phone call just before trying to talk to us.”_

_“Up to you Jill, for all intents and purposes it seems like he is on our side, but as you’ve been saying he just doesn’t seem right.”_

_“All right, I’m going to go grab something from the cafeteria real quick, do you want anything for you or Piers?”_

_“Just grab something I guess as for Piers… I don’t know uh, water? Docs haven’t really said anything about what he can eat or drink.”_

_“Alright, I’ll be back soon Chris.”_

**oOoOoOoOo**

_“Hello now, Agent… Baird is it, that is what you are calling yourself these days isn’t it?”_ Ada smirked from her position in the office chair she *commandeered*

_“You know well enough what I go by these days, Ada Wong. What information do you have for me?”_

_“Well, well, well, no need to get testy Agent. I did manage to get into the Neo-Umbrella facility that you told me about, you know the one you said you and your little buddies were going to break into later.”_ Ada started flipping through a few pages of the files in her hand.

_“Yes, the very one you are probably standing in now Wong, what have you found, or is there anything to find at all?”_

_“Why yes, there is some stuff that is quite interesting to say the least. I found some files here on the three enhanced versions of the C-Virus that Carla Radames carried with her, and what looks to be a few audio recordings of some scientists that worked in this place as well.”_

_“What is on them Wong?”_

_“Well, it appears to be that these boys decided to create more of that enhanced C-Virus stuff, unknown to Carla Radames but this I somehow doubt. It appears that they were working on creating different mixtures with the three strains, and one of these recordings mentioned one of them being switched in the case that she was carrying. It appears that there may be multiple samples here, and i think i might just be holding the file referring to your little friend.”_

_“Watch the words you use with me Wong, friend is not something you would wish to say to someone like me. The B.S.A.A. may be for saving the world, but at the moment my only interests are those counteracting the productions of Neo-Umbrella.”_

_“Point taken, *Agent Baird*, so what do you want me to do with all this stuff?”_ Ada closed the files in her hand and set them on the desk.

“Make copies and take samples of whatever it is that you can find, make sure everything appears _as if it has not yet been touched, I will contact you after we return.”_

_“Alright then, Mister HUNK, I will be seeing you soon.”_

Agent Baird growled through the phone. _“Wong, if that ever gets out, you will know why they call me Death.”_

Ada laughed into the phone. _“Whatever you say Agent, but I should go now, I have a few visitors and I think they might want their chair back.”_

_“Wong whatever the hell you do, do **not** lose anything!”_

_“Wouldn’t dream of it, sweetheart.”_ Ada disconnected the call and grabbed her crossbow, stepping over the body of a technician she found in here.

_*If he thinks I’m such a fool as to not take any of this with me he has another thing coming.*_

Ada pulled a bomb out of her pack and placed it, they will be here soon enough. _*Hope you enjoy my little present when you get here, I will be oh so close.*_

**oOoOoOoOo**

            Agent Baird walked back into the room and Agent Valentine was gone. Chris saw him and nodded, looking back to Piers. Agent Baird walked over and leaned on the wall, looking out of the window for a moment before turning to look at Chris and Piers.

_“So, Captain Redfield, this was the work of the enhanced C-Virus?”_

Chris shrugged. _“Honestly… I’m not quite sure; the other two vials that were reported did not have nearly the same effects as the one Piers had.”_

_“Yes, they can have quite the differing effects when used on different people.”_

_“I suppose… by the way, why are you so heavily armed, where were you trained at before?”_

Agent Baird felt a buzz in his pocket, pulling out the phone only to scowl at it. _“Not everyone has been trained by the B.S.A.A. Captain Redfield.”_

Chris raised an eyebrow. _“What is that supposed to mean, just who exactly are you Agent?”_

Baird turned away from the window and smirked. _“I follow everyone, day and night. I have no mercy nor do I care if they are young or old, strong or weak, sick or healthy. I claim everyone one day or another, nobody ever escapes it. Not even those using Ouroboros claiming to be gods can forestall it forever.”_

Chris started to get up from his chair, laying a hand on his nine-oh-nine nearby. _“What the hell are you talking about?”_

Agent Baird raised his hands up. _“Settle down Captain Redfield, I have no intention of doing anything to you or your friend Agent Nivans here.”_

Chris did not loosen the grip on his handgun. _“And just why should I believe what you are telling me?”_

Agent Baird pulled out two pistols of his own and unloaded them. _“Because if I wanted a damn firefight we would already be having one.”_

Chris watched the rounds of ammo drop to the ground, eventually even the ones in the chamber joining them. _“Fine… but don’t let me catch you doing anything suspicious around Piers, do you understand me Agent?”_

_“Loud and clear Captain Redfield. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go meet with someone, give Agent Valentine my regards.”_

            Chris sat and watched as Agent Baird walked out of the room, pulling out his phone one more time. Chris kept watching the door and he must have had a fierce scowl on his face, when Jill walked into the room she looked concerned. She brought a boxed meal for Chris and Piers but stood in the doorway wondering what was wrong with Chris.

_“Chris, what’s wrong?”_

_“What? What are you talking about?”_

Jill rolled her eyes. _“You are scowling like you were about to rip off someone’s head.”_

_“I was.”_

_“What?! Why?!”_

_“Your… **Agent** is getting stranger and stranger. I almost though he was about to shoot Piers and I was about to shoot him, but he didn’t. Then I asked him who he really was and he just gave me a fucking riddle.”_

_“A… riddle?”_

_“Yeah… why?”_

_“What uh… what was the riddle?”_

_“He said *I follow everyone, day and night. I have no mercy nor do I care if they are young or old, strong or weak, sick or healthy. I claim everyone one day or another, nobody ever escapes it. Not even those using Ouroboros claiming to be gods can forestall it forever* Why, does that mean something?”_

Jill scratched her chin for a moment. _“Don’t we have old files on someone that went by the nickname of Grim Reaper?”_

_“You don’t mean that he could…”_

_“What if he is Chris, should I still take him with me?”_

Chris sat still for a moment, thinking. _“Well… we don’t want to make him suspicious that we know something but at the same time it might not be safe…”_

_“Chris, I can keep an eye on him trust me.”_

Chris sighed. _“I know you can it’s just… I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you guys.”_

Jill smiled. _“Don’t worry Chris, we’ve dealt with worse than some super trained Umbrella Operative before.”_

Chris shrugged. _“I guess you’re right, just keep Claire safe for me alright?”_

Jill flashed a smile. _“You bet Chris, see you soon.”_

**oOoOoOoOo**

Jill swept her eyes over the three gathered with her, lingering a bit longer on Agent Baird. _“Alright, what are we dealing with here exactly?”_

Agent Baird brought up a map of facility. _“There are four entry points. North, South, East, and West. I will take the Southern entry point, Agent Valentine North, Miss Redfield the East, and Agent Jackson the West. Those three entry points should be lightly guarded, hopefully even less so when the Southern Entry support will need some assistance.”_

Jill watched as Agent Baird pulled out a rifle. _“Is there something you aren’t telling us?”_

_“Yes. Be ready to go in in 5 minutes.”_

            Agent Baird gave no time for them to ask for an elaboration, he went to his position near the southern entry point. Jill and the others split up, each heading to their respective Northern Eastern and Western entry points. Once Jill got to the Northern point she hid behind some trees and foliage. There were two guards standing at the entrance, and they seemed to be rather bored, their weapons were on the ground and they had what looked like some playing cards.

_“Jill here, is everyone in position?”_

_“I’m in position Agent Valentine, it looks like I have three guards, not sure what else could be here though it’s pretty dark.”_

_“I have one guard here, I think he might be one of those J’avo things though, Jill.”_

Jill sighed, their fears were confirmed this was definitely a B.O.W. lab of some kind. _“Alright, Agent Baird what do you have at the Southern point?”_

Radio silence, a moment later an alarm sounded. _“Agent Baird what’s going on?”_

            The radio keyed in after a moment but all they could here was sounds of fighting. Bullets sounded to be going back and forth while they heard screaming and the telltale signs of explosions. Jill almost yelled in frustration but then she saw the guards becoming alert, one of them keying into their own radio.

_“Agent Jackson, Claire, get to the Southern point we need to find out what the hell is going on with Baird.”_

_“Yes Ma’am, I’m on my way.”_

_“On my way Jill, be there as soon as I can.”_


	9. Data Chip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like it!
> 
> Oh and I guess i ended up writing a bloodshot thing pretty much.

Chapter 9: Data Chip

 

            Jill rushed her way through the trees, dodging the low hanging branches and jumping over roots. She could hear small explosions coming from the direction of the building, even the screams were audible from the distance she was at.

_“Claire, Agent Jackson, where are you guys?”_

_“I’m almost there Jill, anything from Baird yet?”_

_“No, nothing. Agent Jackson?”_

Radio silence.

_“Agent Jackson, report in.”_

_“Fuck! I’m here, dog attacked me out of nowhere I’m almost there!”_

_“Alright be careful, I’ll be there soon.”_

Claire gasped into the comms. _“Jill… hurry up… who the hell did we bring with us?”_

Jill dodged another branch, a clearing visible up ahead. _“Claire what are you talking about?”_

_“They’re… all dead…”_

Jill broke through to the clearing and stopped next to Claire, her nose being bombarded by the stench of rotting flesh. _“Oh my god…”_

Claire took in a shuddering breath, a tear running down her cheek. _“Jill… some of them look so damn young…”_

Jill tried to wave the smell of death away but it tainted the very air they breathed. _“Young or not Claire we can’t just assume someone killed them in cold blood… no person decays that quickly.”_

_“But Jill, what if these weren’t rece- oh my god one of them is moving!”_

Jill pulled her gun up as an arm started to move. _“Stay back from it Claire!”_

            They stood still and watched as a corpse started to push itself off the ground. It turned toward Jill and Claire, opening its mouth to release a stench that almost made Claire double over and retch. Part of its face slid off, revealing the inside of its head to be infested with maggots, forming something… new.

Its jaw started to move. _“It’s killing me… h-help us…”_

Claire took another step back. _“Oh my god they’re still alive…”_

            Jill backed up with Claire while the other corpses began to rise, adding to the stench of death filling the air, all of them begging for the same relief as the first. Soon, as chorus of the dead was singing out for help, and not even a bullet to the brain would save them.

 _“Stay back!”_ Jill fired a shot and it barely seemed to phase the walking dead.

One of them lurched forward, its leg snapping in half forcing it to fall to the ground. _“H-help… can’t… stop it…”_

_“Claire back up! It doesn’t look like bullets are going to do anything!”_

One of the dead was charred black, each one seeming to have a story behind it. _“F-fire… burned us… virus saved… can’t stop…”_

Jill cursed and tried to fire another shot to slow them down. _“Shit where’s Jackson at, we could try some grenades!”_

_“Valentine, Redfield, watch out!”_

            Jill and Claire dodged to the side as Agent Jackson came off a hill followed by a mutated dog. She caught it with her foot, sending it over her head with a grenade, crashing into some of the zombies. The dog whimpered when it landed, immediately being followed by the explosion form the grenade. Jackson got up and started backing off from the reanimated corpses, still calling out for someone to be their salvation.

_“What the fuck are those things?!”_

_“Back up! Gunfire isn’t doing anything to them, do you have any grenades left?”_

Jackson felt her pockets. _“Three left, think we could make it to that door?”_

Claire fired at an approaching zombie, stunning it for an instant. _“Do you think a door is even still there after all those explosions?”_

_“Probably not… but it’s better than staying out here with these things all over the place.”_

Jill nodded. _“Alright Jackson, throw one right in the middle on three and we can try to break out way through.”_

Jackson nodded and pulled out a grenade. _“Alright, on three. One… two… three!”_

            Jackson threw the grenade, bouncing off of a few zombies. A few seconds went by, the corpses still moving. The grenade blew, sending body parts and broken maggots everywhere, carrying the stench of death even higher in the air. They ran towards the door through the small opening created by the grenade. They almost made it to the door before Agent Jackson was grabbed. She yelled out and hit the ground with a thud, the corpse’s grip stronger than iron.

_“Shit! Let go of me you son of a bitch!”_

Claire and Jill came running up from behind. _“Shoot this damn thing already!”_

            Jill shot it straight through the head and it recoiled, flesh beginning to fall off even quicker. Jill and Claire grabbed Jackson and began rushing through the door. The corpse stood up, watching the three like a hungry predator. Jill slammed her hand onto the nearby emergency controls, causing the door to begin closing quickly. The corpse roared and lunged, not making it through the door but instead being stuck under it, the force of the impact throwing Jill, Claire, and Jackson all back.

_“Shit, what does it take to kill this thing?!”_

_“Smash its head or something!”_

_“With what?!”_

            Claire stood up and saw a nearby emergency locker. She backed up and kicked it as hard as she could, breaking the glass and allowing her to get to the axe that was inside. What an axe would do inside a building made completely of metal, she had no clue. She grabbed it and stepped over to the zombie now being crushed in half by the door, sending brown, discolored blood flying all over the place. Claire brought the axe up, her adrenaline increasing after hearing the sounds of the other corpses approaching the door.

_“Go to hell you son of a bitch!”_

            Claire severed its head clear from its body, the rest of it still flailing even with a detached head. Claire saw the shadows getting closer and only breathed a sigh of relief after all three of them were able to kick the corpse through, forcing the door to shut completely.

_“Holy shit what the hell was that, what’s going on here?!”_

All three grabbed their guns when they heard a voice with ragged breathing behind them. _“S…omething t-that you… don’t wa…nt to shoot in th-the head…”_

Jill’s frown deepened when she recognized who it was. _“Baird! What the hell do you think you were doing Agent!”_

            Jill stopped for a moment when she saw him reach for something while holding an arm to his stomach. He pulled out a data chip and started to hand it to Jill while she was noticing the deepening red of his gear.

 _“This… should have what… you need to know. We need to get out of here… this place is going to…”_ He sucked in a ragged breath and Jackson went to help him. _“Thank… you… this place is going to… blow. Need to leave…”_

            Baird broke off from Jackson and started hobbling down the hallway. Jill, Claire, and Jackson soon followed, Jill tucking the data chip securely into her vest. Jill soon started hearing a banging on the walls, always followed by a muffled roar.

_“What the hell is that?”_

Claire looked back at Jill. _“What are you talking about Jill?”_

_“I just heard a roar… Baird, what is in here?”_

He sucked in a breath before talking, gritting his teeth while trying to talk. _“Something you should… hope dies here…”_

_“What is that supposed to mean?”_

_“Agent Valentine… everything you need to know is on that chip… you need to get out… of here…”_

            More pounding followed by another roar, this time sounding a little closer. Jill sighed and stopped pushing Baird, deciding to wait until they were out. Baird stopped at the beginning of a long hallway. He rested his hand near an emergency lever, taking in another shuddering breath.

_“When I pull this switch, just run. The exit… is right up ahead… don’t stop just run for… all you’re worth…”_

Everyone nodded as the pounding became loud enough for everyone to hear. _“Go!”_

            An alarm sounded as Baird pulled down on the lever. They took off running, seeing blast doors come down one by one behind them, Baird barely making it through them in time. Jill kept her eyes ahead for any kind of traps that might spring up. That helped, a blade spun out and she was able to jump over it.

_“Watch out there’s a blade spinning up here!”_

_“We hear ya Jill!”_

            Two more doors before Jill would be out, she could hear the moaning of corpses outside, she hoped to god that they weren’t crowding around the exit. Jill got to the door and looked back, Claire and Jackson were almost to her. Baird was falling behind, crawling under the spinning blade.

_“Go!”_

            Jill nodded to him and opened the door, rushing outside into fresh air, the sound of the corpses hearable but no stench was in the air as of yet. Jill held the door open as Jackson and Claire came running through. The last two blast doors were almost down, and Jill could see a huge shadow behind Baird. She took out her handgun and fired at it, hearing a roar as something flew at her chest and shattered into pieces.

_“Close it Valentine!”_

_“What are you talking about, get your ass out here!”_

            Jill tried to keep the door open but was forced to close it as Baird stood behind the last blast door, throwing something out to them before turning around and firing. Jill, Claire, and Jackson turned from the building and ran for all they were worth, being followed by the corpses from another part of the facility from the noise they were making.

_“Take a dive!”_

            They dived into an alcove on the ground, being partially sheltered by the ground above them. **_BOOM!!_** The facility exploded, sending shrapnel and burned corpses everywhere. Jill covered her head with her hands, feeling small bits of debris rain down on them. When it finally stopped raining dirt they stepped out, looking at the ruined building before them.

_“Holy shit…”_

_“That chip better be worth that…”_

            Jill reached into her vest pocket to grab it, feeling a part of that shard from earlier, grabbing it out with her other hand. She reached for the chip only to find broken pieces.

_“It’s broken…”_

_“What? Jill are you serious?”_

Jill pulled out the shattered pieces. _“That thing… when I shot at it something flew at me and shattered… the chip… the chip stopped it…”_

Claire sighed. _“Well shit… let’s get out of here before those things find us… I can still hear some of them.”_

_“What about Baird?”_

_“Jackson that entire building is rubble… do you really think he could have survived that, I mean he was bleeding out already.”_

Jackson sighed and started following after Claire and Jill. _“I guess you’re right…”_


End file.
